The present invention relates to a remote manipulation assembly mounted on a movable platform and comprising a telescopic supporting assembly retractable into a tightly sealed hood.
Various types of manipulators are known and they are used in hostile or dangerous media, particularly in the nuclear field for remotely carrying out various manipulating or handling operations.
Remote manipulating assemblies are known which are carried by gantries comprising a generally vertical telescoping or girder device at the end of which a manipulating arm can be displaced within a room forming a hot cell when the manipulator is intended for use in a radioactive enclosure, or a workshop or test bay if the said manipulator is intended to carry out other industrial functions.
In addition, remote manipulating systems are known which are carried by different devices integral with a vehicle bearing or resting on the ground. These systems are intended for occasional use and must be able to enter a nuclear or non-nuclear working zone. The intervention vehicles are essentially limited to access at ground level. In addition, intermediate systems between the two aforementioned systems are known which, by transfer on vertical or horizontal moving beams, make it possible to introduce a system which is equivalent to the first having a less occasional function than the first mentioned means, so that use thereof is possible in a series of similar rooms able to receive the same moving beam. However, particularly in the case of installations working on radioactive products, installations exist where access by the ground is not possible and there are even certain installations having no incorporated handling means. The latter zones are static equipment cells such as exist in numerous chemical installations which only contain manifolds vessels. In connection with the latter, completely blind rooms or areas are frequently encountered with which no remote operation means is associated in normal operation.
For the purpose of intervening without fixed means in the enclosure or in accidental circumstances or for dismantling at the end of use of such installations, the latter being of particular interest in connection with dismantling nuclear installations when they become obsolete, it is at the same time necessary to have possibly more sensitive manipulation means having a higher dexterity level than the routine production installation means. At the same time, it is necessary to obtain access to these rooms and areas by the only opening which exists and which is located in the roof.